Is your single sign-on portal hurting your IT security?
That’s a critical question to consider as you review your IT security each quarter. You might have implemented the single sign-on portal a year or two ago and moved on to other concerns. That is a risk because these portals can present an attractive opportunity to hackers. Once they clear the initial access hurdle, they could gain access to all of your company’s data!
Three Ways To Assess Your Single Sign-On Portal Security
Think of the following scenario: You have selected and installed the best single sign-on software you can buy. Now, a determined IT security professional doesn’t rest. They know there are other ways a system can be compromised. Use the self-assessment questions in this section to determine if your organization has the right set of security best practices in place. Without these best practices, your data, employees and customers will be at an increased chance of security problems.
Process Evaluation For IT Security
These security process best practices play a role in supporting your single sign-on portal.
● Do you regularly update your IT security policy and procedures? At a minimum, we recommend updating these core documents annually.
● Does your organization apply the principle of least privilege in security? Without process discipline, you might give all employees the same access rights. That is a mistake! What if a password fell into the wrong hands?
● Do you have access management key performance indicators in place? KPIs are helpful management tools to measure your progress month by month. Missing this measurement process increases the likelihood of an access failure or lost IT security data.
● Do you have a written password policy for your organization? This type of document is a simple way to define your expectations for employee passwords. It is an oversight to rely on common sense for passwords. Your company password expectations must be clearly defined and communicated.
All of these IT security process best practices can harm or improve your security each day. That’s why you may want to assess your process performance quarterly so you can detect gaps quickly.
People Evaluation For IT Security
Your employees, contractors and consultants have access to sensitive data every day of the week. That’s why you must equip yourself with the best practices and skills to safeguard your data. Check if your people know about these best practices. Otherwise, they may be assuming that systems like a single sign-on portal to keep data safe.
● What professional training opportunities are available to your IT security professionals? IT security is a dynamic field where new threats emerge every month. That is why it is a best practice to provide new training for your security professionals continuously.
● Does your new employee orientation include IT security training? Whether they are new college graduates or experienced staff, new employees need guidance on your IT security expectations. If there is no formal requirement to train new hires on IT security, you have an increased chance of a security breach.
● Do you involve managers and supervisors in IT security oversight? There are limits to what the IT security department can achieve on their own. For the best security results, your front line managers need to reinforce security. For example, do managers consider staff IT security performance during annual performance reviews? If not, employees may not care much about protecting sensitive data.
● Do staff reuse the same password over and over again? Ineffective password habits expose company data to a heightened risk of disclosure. That’s why training employees to avoid password reuse disease is a smart idea.
Asking your people to pay more attention to IT security is worthwhile. Without the right skills and security awareness, simple problems are more likely to occur.
Technology Evaluation For IT Security
A single sign-on portal is just one tool in building a robust IT security program. Relying too much on a single sign-on portal for security is like using a single hammer in a construction project. In both cases, using a single tool for everything is frustrating and far from safe. Building a robust IT security program means
● How reliant is your company on conventional passwords? Standard passwords, even complex ones, no longer meet today’s best practices. Instead, it would help if you had a solution that supports multi-factor authentication.
● What work effort is required to set up new people with user accounts at the company? It is the best practice to leverage systems and group user account management. These best practices mean access is set up more quickly.
● How does your company make password resets easy for employees? It is an emerging best practice to give employees the chance to reset their passwords through a self-serve tool like Apollo.
● Do you have complete records for all user access changes? Full documentation of user and access changes is recommended to find the root cause for problems.
Regularly reviewing the identity and access management software you have in place is smart because poor identity and access management make security much harder.
Prioritizing Security Best Practices For The Greatest Benefit
Reviewing all of these security best practices may reveal some surprising insights. You might find that there are multiple gaps in the company. That is natural because IT security keeps evolving. Further, your IT security department may have fallen behind on best practices if you have recently been fighting some challenges. Keep these points in mind as you work with your team to identify priorities to implement. All things being equal, it is a wise idea to prioritize security software solutions. You can install these solutions once and receive ongoing security benefits with minimal oversight. Now should you focus on an IT security chatbot or a software solution to manage user groups? The answer lies in finding the most significant source of IT security risk. For example, a rapidly expanding company and adding new employees may want to buy a group user account management solution first.
